The beast tamer exiled from the hero’s party and the cat eared girl from the strongest race meet
Despite a major incident occurring, luckily, the monster subjugation was successfully completed.
Neither I, Kanade, nor Nina were injured, and none of the other adventurers were seriously hurt either.
In the end, it was a big success.
As a cost for that, though, Kamui was shattered.
For now, we returned home to rest our bodies, tired from the battle...
The next day, I visited Gantz’s weapon shop.
"Umm..."
When I showed the shattered Kamui to Gantz, he made a terribly bitter face.
Tina, who had just finished her regular maintenance, peeked at him.
"Hey, hey, old man. Can you fix Rain’s weapon?"
"If it’s been shattered this thoroughly, there’s nothing I can do. Rather than fixing it, it would be faster to make a new one from scratch. Just how did you use it?"
"Uh... I thought I was handling it normally, though."
"Really?"
"Rain’s idea of 'normal' isn't exactly reliable, y'know."
Not only Gantz but even Tina was suspicious of me for some reason.
"No, seriously, I handled it normally. I just fought monsters like usual, didn’t strike any particularly hard parts either..."
"Hmm. That’s strange... Even though it hadn't been maintained for a while, it wasn’t made to break so easily."
"...Maybe it’s because of that?"
As we were both puzzling over it, Tina spoke up, as if remembering something.
"That?"
"During the fight with Lin, you used Kanade’s power, right?"
"Yeah. But I’ve borrowed Kanade’s and everyone’s power many times before..."
"But that was the first time you borrowed their power when they were awakened, right?"
"Ah."
"Maybe the weapon couldn’t withstand it, took critical damage, and finally broke during the recent monster subjugation?"
Now that she mentioned it, that made a lot of sense.
Actually, I couldn’t think of any other possibility.
"What’s this 'awakening' you’re talking about?"
Gantz asked, looking puzzled.
"Well, actually..."
I explained to Gantz about the awakening, and how I had borrowed Kanade’s power in that state.
His bitter expression turned into one of understanding.
"I see... In that case, it makes sense. I didn’t design it to withstand that much power. It's no wonder it shattered."
"Uh... sorry about that."
I felt terrible for breaking a weapon that Gantz had poured his heart into making.
From his perspective, it must’ve been extremely frustrating.
Unable to bear it, I apologized, but Gantz just laughed it off.
"Nah, if anyone should apologize, it’s me. I never considered the possibility of it breaking. I was overconfident, thinking that no weapon I made could ever break. You made me realize that, so I’m grateful."
"I’m glad you feel that way."
"But still... what should we do about this?"
Gantz's face turned bitter again.
"You can't fix it?"
"Like I said earlier, it would be faster to make a new one. Though it’ll take time, that’s not a problem. I have the materials, and I have the time."
"Then..."
"But there’s no point in making something that’ll just break again, right?"
"True..."
That could be a problem.
Thinking about the future, we would likely be fighting more demons.
I would probably need to borrow everyone's awakened power again.
If I kept breaking weapons every time, I’d really feel guilty.
"Can't you make something new? A new weapon for Rain-sama, one that can withstand everyone’s awakened power?"
"Tina, you’re just troubling Gantz by asking for something so unreasonable..."
"I can make it."
"You can!?"
I was surprised at how casually he said it.
However, Gantz’s face still looked bitter.
Maybe there was still some problem.
"I take pride in being a first-class weaponsmith. No matter what it is, if the customer wants it, I’ll deliver."
"Man, you’re reliable, old man."
"But... just like I said before, without the right materials, I can’t do anything."
"Are we out of mithril again?"
"No, mithril is still being mined just fine. The problem is, mithril isn’t enough."
"Oh, I see."
"What do you mean?"
"Basically..."
Kamui was made from mithril, but even that wasn’t strong enough to withstand everyone’s awakened power.
If we made a new weapon using the same materials, it would likely meet the same fate.
...I explained this to them.
"I see. So, old man, could you make a new weapon for Rain-sama using a material stronger than mithril?"
"Don't say it like it's easy. Materials stronger than mithril are extremely rare. Hmmm... High Mithril, perhaps? But its durability isn't that much better... In that case, an Element Crystal, or maybe Sunsteel... No, no, maybe something even beyond that..."
Gantz began to mumble, deep in thought, stroking his chin.
After a while, he shook his head with a troubled look.
"Hmm... No good. None of them feel quite right. To withstand the power of this 'awakening,' the material has to be something extraordinary."
"Isn’t there anything that's like, perfect for this?"
"Well... if we had the legendary metal Orichalcum, there’d be no problem."
"Alright, old man! Then let's go with that!"
"Don’t be ridiculous. It’s called legendary for a reason. We can’t just find Orichalcum lying around."
"Haha, true enough."
After that...
We racked our brains trying to come up with ideas, but no good ones came to mind, and we ended up calling it a day.
Thinking about the future, having a weapon stronger than Kamui was definitely necessary.
We desperately wanted to find a solution, but without any solid plan in place...
Tina and I returned home, still troubled and deep in thought.
――――――――――
"And that’s how it is."
During dinner, I shared with everyone the conversation I had with Gantz.
Hearing that, Kanade looked apologetic.
"Nyaa... I'm sorry, Rain. It's my fault your weapon broke..."
"No, no, it's not your fault, Kanade. It was bound to happen. Besides, if I hadn’t borrowed your power, we wouldn’t have been able to beat Lin."
"Exactly. So don’t worry about it too much."
"Yeah... eheh, thanks, Tina."
Seeing Kanade cheer up made me feel relieved — but the real problem was still unsolved.
Seriously, what should we do...?
...As I was wrestling with that thought, an unexpected voice spoke up from an unexpected place.
"Hmm. In short, if you have Orichalcum, everything will be fine, right?"
"That’s true, but... wait, Luna, do you know where to find Orichalcum?"
"Know where? Rain, you already have Orichalcum."
"..."
A moment of silence.
And then—
"WHAT!?"
Our shocked voices echoed through the room.
Comments
Post a Comment